Lacquer thinner and resin

[Mysterion]

I've lost a little detail on a resin body due to a build up of primer while doing some body work.

If I carefully wipe the area down with lacquer thinner, will I damage the resin body?

[Dennis M]

WOW ' I not sure Dave. I have put resin bodies in purple power & that took the paint off with no problem. Im not sure on the primer.

[koffinbuilder64]

Dave, if you used a rattle-can lacquer type of primer, I would just soak it in some westley's bleech-white whitewall cleaner. Its what I use to strip most paints from plastic. It won't harm the surface at all. I'm afraid the solvent-based thinner might harm the surface of your body. However--it might harm some fillers used for bodywork. Just my two cents!! Good luck !

[Starry Eyes]

CAUTION !!! Don Holthaus told me to wipe a resin body I had with lacquer thinner!!! Some resins turn to chewing gum when placed in Westlys or the "purple pond"!! Test a spot on the lower quarter panel with lacquer thinner ...

[eshaver]

I've used Brake fluid , then a GOOD wash with a detergent .

[TooOld]

The most commonly used resins are Polyester resin and Vinylester resin . Once cured they can both be cleaned with either acetone or lacquer thinner without harming the part . About the only thing that will soften a cured part is Methylene Chloride which is found in a couple of the liquid cements sold by different companies .
Years ago I heard about some degreasing products that would soften Epoxy resin so anything is possible !
I'd use the lacquer thinner and not worry about it !

[Mysterion]

Thanks guys. I forgot I had a lot of left over parts from this kit and tried it out on one of those. Without any problems, I decided to clean the small areas with the thinner. It came off great, unfortunately the problem was not built up primer but lack of detail in the body.

Oh well.

[Starry Eyes]

Mar 2, 2013 16:59:41 GMT -6 eshaver said:

I've used Brake fluid , then a GOOD wash with a detergent .

Ed - If you have a MODELHAUS body Don (Holthaus) told me on the phone that brake fluid WILL turn his body's into chewing gum .. just passing it on ..

[koffinbuilder64]

Glad to see you have it figured out Dave. Good luck with your project!
Thanks for the heads-up about resin body cleaners Chuck!! ;D

[Starry Eyes]

Mar 3, 2013 9:24:58 GMT -6 koffinbuilder64 said:

Glad to see you have it figured out Dave. Good luck with your project!
Thanks for the heads-up about resin body cleaners Chuck!! ;D

no worries Dan .. other than my own resin stuff I've only had Modelhaus ... Don only lives a few hours away so I made a phone call to see what he recommended .. Not sure about the other resin mfg's recommend out there !!

[Wardster]

Experiment first, to find out if the resin you're using willl react badly ... but with that said:

Something I do on most of the resin kit parts I get, as a step prior to fixing air bubbles and/or doing any required seam line removal and what not, is to give the parts a wash of lacquer thinner that's been dyed with what I call "Sharpie Juice". (Meaning literally the "juice" out of Sharpie marking pens. It's a pain in the butt to extract, and a very messy process -- but great stuff to have around, as high strength dye for tinting various things.) The purpose here being that most kit parts I've seen come in a really light color. (White or cream, most commonly.) It is virtually impossible, or at least a much larger headache than it should be, to "see anything" on a white-on-white-on-white background ... so, crudely brush painting some dyed lacquer thinner onto all of the resin kit part's surfaces tells me a lot about what I will need to clean up. Any air bubbles that you would not normally see, show up sharply with the dyed lacquer thinner; as the stuff will run into even tiny holes, and remain there. Saves me oodles of time at a later stage, to be able to find and fill any such bubbles, or to find any scratch marks or other minor defects that slipped through the master-building process; and "got molded".

At the end of the defect-finding and removal stages of the process, I remove the dyed lacquer thinner with regular (no dye) lacquer thinner. Just brushed-on-and-wiped-back-off, until the parts look clean.

I've found that something that figure modelers love -- a product called Magic Sculpt -- works well for filling those tiny bubbles and minor scratches and what not. I use that between the stages of having used the dyed lacquer thinner to find casting flaws and so on; and the final "wash the dyed stuff back off" process. So far as I can tell, that two-part epoxy sculpting product doesn't care if you put lacquer thinner over it or not. (And it's also one of the only seam-filling products I'm aware of, that feathers out nicely just from using a water-dampened finger or paper towel, to get the filler material to be exactly the shape you want it, before it hardens. You can even fill scratches or whatever, after you've primed and/or begun painting a model. Because all you need is water to smooth it, there's next to no reason to have to sand it to final shape; and you can apply it over even acrylic paints with no reactions. I'm hugely loving Magic Sculpt, for many tasks!)

So, while I can't vouch for everyone's resin products "liking" lacquer thinner, so far the parts I've cast myself don't seem to mind that level of abuse; and the parts I've bought are okay with it. (But since I mostly build sci-fi models and the like, and the only resin car bodies I've bought have been some Roth-related ones from the Spritz by Fritz web site, you guys who mostly build model cars may want to test your particular resin parts, in an inconspicuous or hidden area, just to be sure.)

[old school modeler]

The resin used by most casters is urethane, cured it is quite immune to the effects of lacquer thinner, wipe away.

Resin bodies are very easy to scribe so if your panel detail is door lines or the like, just scribe over to deepen.

Epoxy fillers are also immune. If you are looking for a source, a lot of figure guys use Aves
www.avesstudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13&Itemid=4